This isn't the kind of money that pays the wages and puts bread on the table of the people work in the company, it's corporate greed, to make a fast buck.

There is zero respect for the customers playing the game. There is no desire to create new content to be played in game. Only content to be bought. Customers are fools to be sucked dry. This has been the the case now for about 9 months but it is coming to a head so violently, I am now posting.

I post with little hope that what I write will be understood by a developer that is just part of a blinkered industry that is slowly eating itself. But I post anyway holding on to a slither of hope. After all I have played and loved the game and invested hundreds if not thousands of hours into it.

I also post with experience, I have already seen a developer, of a similar RTS MMO game, go all out cynical cash cow and the game was dead within 2 years, zero customers left.

I could write a small book about the sapphire only updates of the last 9 months but I will call as evidence just one area of today's updates. But this area is so heinous on it's own is stands evidence as the death of the game.

Sketches

These represent the end of the need to raid.

Don't bother playing the game anymore. If you are addicted/stupid/manipulated enough just tripple your castle resource production to the point that 24/7 troop production is assured. What does this take... nothing you can do it right now immediately with enough cash.

Why will this kill the game?

They have just allowed people to buy there way to the end game. You can now buy your way to not having to play the game each day. This isn't even good business sense in the long run because without content these people will literally stop playing and move on from the game. You take short term money to turn your biggest spending customers into ex-customers in the long term.

For the rest of the player base, it just unbalanced the game to the most ridiculous level. Pay to win player logs in for 2 mins and achieves what might make take you 2/3hrs to achieve. It's way over the line of common sense. It will leave people cold. No one wants to play a game which is so unbalanced they can't hope to compete.

I bet a load of sketches will be bought in the short term. I bet the team will be slapping themselves on the back for their cunning and success. In two years time when the game is dead..... well you will just move onto another job I guess, there is no love for this game so will anyone at Plarium even care?.

Seemingly Plarium won't know what a valued customer is until we are all gone, turned cold by cynical, short termist, money grabbing.

Here is the basic concept for any business in regards to making money, and you can ask any of the accounting guys, in fact ask Serge.

It is typically referred to on any business model as a "get keep grow" To begin with

Get refers to the initial startup and or obtaining more customers, this is generally achieved through advertising/word of mouth/media/contest + events

Keep refers specifically to providing your current customers things to keep them interested and engaged, this can include things such as regular updates / forum contests / outreach+loyalty programs

Grow refers to referrals, up-selling, further brand development, expanding your channels and mixing things up to keep the current customers happy

The issue, at least in my eyes is that Plarium is incredibly tunnel visioned on the "grow" part without realizing that the "keep" section is getting hammered, you can't grow your customer base if your current customers feel they are being (for lack of a better word) abused/mistreated...Your genre relies very heavily on word of mouth, social networking such as "congratulations you won this - share" on Facebook. No one wants to spend (I think someone worked it out to be roughly $4,000 for all sketches) it's not realistic and because of this no one wants to do Plarium favours, it's very much a "we scratch your back you scratch ours".

The issue comes directly from the fact that Plarium's games are always online, which means that at any moment the game servers could close down and people would be out of pocket....If I was to spend $4k on something I would want some form of insurance or guarantee. Not to mention do you know how much that is, that is the price of a car in some countries. It isn't "micro"transactions

The game is becoming too expensive for a vast majority of the community and the vast majority that do or use to spend money don't want to anymore because the strategic advantage isn't there anymore. I'm going to go out on a limb here and make an assumption that a large portion of Plarium's in-game funding don't go anywhere near the items such as auto-catacomb, but instead go into units/revival and maybe boosts. So why did a community based update need to have such a giant price tag attached to it (referring to sketches). I have defended Plarium many times, but I could only do so because my defense was subjective, it was never objective... I can't think of a major game update that was objectively better, I guess the resource slider could be considered but it is 1 update from 100.

The argument that Plarium has to make money is getting kind of old because it is getting to a stage where you will literally suffocate yourself because everyone wants to leave/not spend money.... You saw first hand the amount of hate Shawna and yourself had to suffer with the BGs the other day

I may not be in the moderator groups anymore but I still have all the previous chat logs and I can quote word for word what the intent of the CM changes was.... So if you truly care about the game and the community, listen to the community and the moderators because the only times I see anything go in the communities way is when there is a massive sapphire attachment to it.

Problem as I see it now, is that they might have dug the hole deep enough to not get out off. The relations with the players is at an all time low. New players joining the game get hit by a wall of neagativity from older players. Older players looking for new games to play, and once they do they bring fellow players with them onto those games. Its like a train of dominos picking up speed.

We hear about how Plarium got people in charge running the numbers and make decisions based on them, and all is fine. Things not fine by a mile :/

Problem as I see it now, is that they might have dug the hole deep enough to not get out off. The relations with the players is at an all time low. New players joining the game get hit by a wall of neagativity from older players. Older players looking for new games to play, and once they do they bring fellow players with them onto those games. Its like a train of dominos picking up speed.

We hear about how Plarium got people in charge running the numbers and make decisions based on them, and all is fine. Things not fine by a mile :/

What happens from a company perspective really isn't my business, what happens in a game that people feel requires money is...But yes, their is a massive negativity wall and it isn't helped by this genre of gaming to begin with, I was told Plarium is moving to mobile gaming which in general is more tolerant of this type of business... So it's obvious to me even without them saying it that Plarium is in fact suffering in the browser market right now

mobile game take many disinterested ppl but is modern gain... gain for publicity and personal data treatment, here could learn what is a good product but do not care, there is an underlying problem anyway, to many greedy or few error in manage resources or both but is problem for plarium, not for me

the substance is that they are very far from what is an entertainment (game?)

mobile game take many disinterested ppl but is modern gain... gain for publicity and personal data treatment, here could learn what is a good product but do not care, there is an underlying problem anyway, to many greedy or few error in manage resources or both but is problem for plarium, not for me

the substance is that they are very far from what is an entertainment (game?)

I don't understand why... I understand, company wants money... But Plarium is literally sitting on a gold mine, this game could be making incredible amounts of money and the community could be growing, but instead people are leaving and boycotting because of high prices/updates that suck more sapphires... Plarium, you are suffocating yourself and will eventually be out of business (not advocating a boycott) if you don't at least attempt to try to win back the community. Smaller leagues can't compete, so instead sister leagues just happen instead and it ends up being a divided game, you have 1 league fighting another and there is no other leagues because if a small league chooses not to side with an alliance, they can't compete... It won't happen

I can't even comprehend how much a statement like "Do you want to play a free-to-play browser strategy game that requires an unlimited credit card to reach the top 100" would sound in a review.... I want Plarium to succeed because I enjoy the game and made some good friends, but this is not the direction that is going to benefit either side in the near future.

Image 1 = top 10 all time offense on Kabam - Everyone except Blaze that quit were in Reckless Discord (Green), Blaze was in Sirens call (Blue)

Image 2 = Atleast 30-40 beacons are still unclaimed

Image 3 = The amount of players in the top leagues

Exact same issue follows on Plarium.com and Facebook.com - Here is an example using the all time top 10s for offense

with a little effort and encourage ppl to pay another 0.1 for a good reasone you earn double

in games and entertainment, there are many mental mechanisms but if you forced ppl for pay all 100 you take nothing, same thing if someone leaves, you lose 0.1 and not 100

we can expand in the abstract discourse (I want to avoid polemics), the hundreds of castles (suspicious? double? triple?) have contributed to entertainment and bring in the right direction the game? help to destroy the game

is too evident.... not fool people, i can spend 100€ for gain 5k sapphire in a tournament? with 100€ a buy a offert and take many more in case, but the purpose is make life more difficult (wrong wrong and wrong)

Lords and Ladies, thank you for all your comments, they will be considered. I assure you that we thoroughly analyze the effect of every feature that we implement into the game. As I said our main goal is the evolution of the game and we do everything possible to make it more enjoyable and comfortable for players.

As I already said, every player chooses different strategy for the game. You may decide to use only those features that fit your strategy. Sapphires that you earn in the game may be used in a way that you prefer.

Plarium Community Manager Please note that I will be unable to respond to your private messages, review your tickets, or check your account information. All technical issues should be directed to our Support Team at plrm.me/Plarium_Support

As I already said, every player chooses different strategy for the game. You may decide to use only those features that fit your strategy. Sapphires that you earn in the game may be used in a way that you prefer.

Problem is though, its to hard to earn sapphires in the game from a grind/effort aspect. You might wreck your army you spent the last 3 months to build in a tourney to get sapphires. You get some sapphires, chance is you got no army left, an the sapphires you got is not enough to get anywhere either. If you look at cost of sketches this is very much through.

It's like saying sorry you only allowed one raid a month in WOW, but you are able to go collect herbs 10 times a day if you so desire.

Sending out 10 raids a day in stormfall grow boring over time you know. Saving up forever to get sapphires to upgrade a building one level is a monument of tedious tbh.

You have players willing to spend money on your game, but it's just not cost competive with other things we can spend money on. You priced yourself out. Chance is someone that already got all their buildings maxed have already sunk a considerable amount of money into your game.

Its like you asking the price of Porche for the value of a Trabant. Also, the strategy you mention. there is no real strategy to speak of under the curent meta/situation. My league hit a becon this weekend. it was like one dude defending and he revived/reinforce with cash and made our atempt laughable. Where is the strategy in that? Can we have a 24h statis period on bought and revived units please?

We wouldn't know if Plarium analyze effects of anything or just go with the "another one ride the bus" motion. Plarium never release any stats of actual active players, if the game is growing and so on.

Like how many new players joined last mont. How many of these still played end of month. How many players active at a certain level. How many castles in the world that haven't been logged into the past 2-3 months. There is a lot of stats you could post and give us, that is easy to extract from your database.

they still ask always for more money, i not spend another euro so :), earn sapphires
in tournaments and weekly rank ohh yes, Plarium you can see how are they made, a regular normal players
can not even trying respecting Rules, this game will become only for big pay vs plarium team (alts vs alts)

I can understand the need to make money; free to play is not free to create, nor is it free to host, maintain, update, etc. I get that. However, I've been watching the price tag get higher and higher.

Others have already listed the problems with the game's current course. I've been watching the trends and all I can say about it is what I've been seeing are the same issues that have killed other games:

1) High quit rate/lots of alts - More and more players are leaving the game. Alts, which are against the rules, are rampant. I think there are more alts than active players. Plarium's enforcement is so bad that players openly boast that their castles are defended by out of league alt accts.

2) Alt abuse - Related to point 1, there are a ton of alts, which by itself may not be a bad thing, but those alts are getting used/abused for unfair advantage. Often they are used as troop mills for tournament points or to defend main's castle with out of league troops (unfair advantage in challenges since out of league troops garner no points).

3) Rewards for $ disproportionate vs playing the game - Pay to win/pay for advantage is a viable model. It may not always be fair, but if the balance is done right, it doesn't kill the game and can still provide fun for all, no matter how much you spend. Making it so that if one spends enough $, playing the game isn't even necessary is dangerous. That makes the top spenders get bored if all they have to do is log in, reap rewards, then go do something else and it marginalizes lesser spenders...as others have already pointed out.

4) Troop Production too slow - Yes, I know Plarium makes a ton of $ selling troops. The problem is that it takes way too long to recover from big losses. It makes many players very risk averse since it costs way too much to buy back or even revive troops and it also drives players from the game.

5) Poor support - There are lots of bugs in the game. Vanishing troops, paid items that don't work like they should, boosts that are consumed without actually doing anything, killer lag, etc. Submit a ticket and you'll get a response, often either promising to look into it or claiming devs already know about it. They may ask for proof, such as battle reports. After you jump through all the hoops, submit all the proof they ask for, you sit back and wait for comp for whatever was lost. The comp never materializes. The troops/resources/sapphires/items are never replaced. They just collect the data and ignore you. This is not a good way to treat customers, especially in a game that relies on optional spending for profit. Since I have no faith in Plarium to make good, I spend very little real money on the game. Why should I pay for overpriced digital "property" that can be stolen at any moment without recourse and which has no warranty should it fail to function as intended?

A BUG

I can understand the need to make money; free to play is not free to create, nor is it free to host, maintain, update, etc. I get that. However, I've been watching the price tag get higher and higher.

Others have already listed the problems with the game's current course. I've been watching the trends and all I can say about it is what I've been seeing are the same issues that have killed other games:

Lord, first of all I want to assure you that we have a professional analytic team and they are investigating each and every little change in the game to make sure that this change doesn't have a negative side effect. They are always watching the feedback from players along with the game logs that show the activity of the players and popularity of all updates among players.

1) High quit rate/lots of alts - More and more players are leaving the game. Alts, which are against the rules, are rampant. I think there are more alts than active players. Plarium's enforcement is so bad that players openly boast that their castles are defended by out of league alt accts.
2) Alt abuse - Related to point 1, there are a ton of alts, which by itself may not be a bad thing, but those alts are getting used/abused for unfair advantage. Often they are used as troop mills for tournament points or to defend main's castle with out of league troops (unfair advantage in challenges since out of league troops garner no points).

You are right, Lord, alt accounts are against our rules. We do everything possible to prevent the advantages of usage of alt accounts. We would appreciate if you could help us and report suspicious accounts to our Support team.

3) Rewards for $ disproportionate vs playing the game - Pay to win/pay for advantage is a viable model. It may not always be fair, but if the balance is done right, it doesn't kill the game and can still provide fun for all, no matter how much you spend. Making it so that if one spends enough $, playing the game isn't even necessary is dangerous. That makes the top spenders get bored if all they have to do is log in, reap rewards, then go do something else and it marginalizes lesser spenders...as others have already pointed out.

It is possible to play the game without purchasing Sapphires. I agree that it is hard to compete with players who receive some advantages with Sapphires, but there are still a lot of possibilities to earn Sapphires and other rewards. This way requires more attention to the game. Also, one of the most important parts in the game is Leagues. A good League can give you the advantages that will help you become a strong player.

4) Troop Production too slow - Yes, I know Plarium makes a ton of $ selling troops. The problem is that it takes way too long to recover from big losses. It makes many players very risk averse since it costs way too much to buy back or even revive troops and it also drives players from the game.

Troops production was considered and balanced when the game was created. Also, if we increase it, it won't change the situation in whole, because the total proportion of Troops will be the same. Let me explain: if right now you have 200 Troops while your opponent has 400, after the increasing of production, you would create 400 Troops. But since your opponent's production increased too, he would have 800 Troops.

5) Poor support - There are lots of bugs in the game. Vanishing troops, paid items that don't work like they should, boosts that are consumed without actually doing anything, killer lag, etc. Submit a ticket and you'll get a response, often either promising to look into it or claiming devs already know about it. They may ask for proof, such as battle reports. After you jump through all the hoops, submit all the proof they ask for, you sit back and wait for comp for whatever was lost. The comp never materializes. The troops/resources/sapphires/items are never replaced. They just collect the data and ignore you. This is not a good way to treat customers, especially in a game that relies on optional spending for profit. Since I have no faith in Plarium to make good, I spend very little real money on the game. Why should I pay for overpriced digital "property" that can be stolen at any moment without recourse and which has no warranty should it fail to function as intended?

Bugs are a reality of development on a live platform, and our developers do aim to fix such bugs as quickly as possible. When we update the game we attempt to minimize bugs prior to release - but with a game of this size and complexity it will never be perfect. We ask for your patience and understanding on this point.

Support team always try to investigate the issue with the game logs, but if you faced an issue in the game, the details that you may send to them are very important since they may help us find and resolve the issue. However, if the bug is confirmed and the Troops/Resources/Sapphires/Items were lost due to this bug, Support team will replace them.

Plarium Community Manager Please note that I will be unable to respond to your private messages, review your tickets, or check your account information. All technical issues should be directed to our Support Team at plrm.me/Plarium_Support

The point about troop production time, is not your opponent get x more than you, but the speed you can recover yourself to do something worth the while again. Because as it is, there is players that is sitting on millions uppon millions of troops more than me already. Unit production time is all about recovery after fatality.

Just make players that now spend on units, spend on resource to make units, and rather have unit production more or less instant, how hard can that be? Then people that want to spend can do that, and those that prefer to raid and get resources elsewhere do that.

I can understand the need to make money; free to play is not free to create, nor is it free to host, maintain, update, etc. I get that. However, I've been watching the price tag get higher and higher.

Others have already listed the problems with the game's current course. I've been watching the trends and all I can say about it is what I've been seeing are the same issues that have killed other games:

Lord, first of all I want to assure you that we have a professional analytic team and they are investigating each and every little change in the game to make sure that this change doesn't have a negative side effect. They are always watching the feedback from players along with the game logs that show the activity of the players and popularity of all updates among players.

1) High quit rate/lots of alts - More and more players are leaving the game. Alts, which are against the rules, are rampant. I think there are more alts than active players. Plarium's enforcement is so bad that players openly boast that their castles are defended by out of league alt accts.
2) Alt abuse - Related to point 1, there are a ton of alts, which by itself may not be a bad thing, but those alts are getting used/abused for unfair advantage. Often they are used as troop mills for tournament points or to defend main's castle with out of league troops (unfair advantage in challenges since out of league troops garner no points).

You are right, Lord, alt accounts are against our rules. We do everything possible to prevent the advantages of usage of alt accounts. We would appreciate if you could help us and report suspicious accounts to our Support team.

3) Rewards for $ disproportionate vs playing the game - Pay to win/pay for advantage is a viable model. It may not always be fair, but if the balance is done right, it doesn't kill the game and can still provide fun for all, no matter how much you spend. Making it so that if one spends enough $, playing the game isn't even necessary is dangerous. That makes the top spenders get bored if all they have to do is log in, reap rewards, then go do something else and it marginalizes lesser spenders...as others have already pointed out.

It is possible to play the game without purchasing Sapphires. I agree that it is hard to compete with players who receive some advantages with Sapphires, but there are still a lot of possibilities to earn Sapphires and other rewards. This way requires more attention to the game. Also, one of the most important parts in the game is Leagues. A good League can give you the advantages that will help you become a strong player.

4) Troop Production too slow - Yes, I know Plarium makes a ton of $ selling troops. The problem is that it takes way too long to recover from big losses. It makes many players very risk averse since it costs way too much to buy back or even revive troops and it also drives players from the game.

Troops production was considered and balanced when the game was created. Also, if we increase it, it won't change the situation in whole, because the total proportion of Troops will be the same. Let me explain: if right now you have 200 Troops while your opponent has 400, after the increasing of production, you would create 400 Troops. But since your opponent's production increased too, he would have 800 Troops.

5) Poor support - There are lots of bugs in the game. Vanishing troops, paid items that don't work like they should, boosts that are consumed without actually doing anything, killer lag, etc. Submit a ticket and you'll get a response, often either promising to look into it or claiming devs already know about it. They may ask for proof, such as battle reports. After you jump through all the hoops, submit all the proof they ask for, you sit back and wait for comp for whatever was lost. The comp never materializes. The troops/resources/sapphires/items are never replaced. They just collect the data and ignore you. This is not a good way to treat customers, especially in a game that relies on optional spending for profit. Since I have no faith in Plarium to make good, I spend very little real money on the game. Why should I pay for overpriced digital "property" that can be stolen at any moment without recourse and which has no warranty should it fail to function as intended?

Bugs are a reality of development on a live platform, and our developers do aim to fix such bugs as quickly as possible. When we update the game we attempt to minimize bugs prior to release - but with a game of this size and complexity it will never be perfect. We ask for your patience and understanding on this point.

Support team always try to investigate the issue with the game logs, but if you faced an issue in the game, the details that you may send to them are very important since they may help us find and resolve the issue. However, if the bug is confirmed and the Troops/Resources/Sapphires/Items were lost due to this bug, Support team will replace them.

when you understand not to make fun of your clients probably you will grow !!!!!!!

how many beautiful words, if you want to have a list of at least 100 alts, the problem that many are
Plarium team and not block them, in different ways but the whole game is connected to the usual league.... what do you say?

how can an idiot like me see clearly and
plarium not? your game is to give this fake entertainment?

when you understand not to make fun of your clients probably you will grow !!!!!!!

how many beautiful words, if you want to have a list of at least 100 alts, the problem that many are
Plarium team and not block them, in different ways but the whole game is connected to the usual league.... what do you say?

how can an idiot like me see clearly and
plarium not? your game is to give this fake entertainment?

Greetings. Please refer all issues about multiple accounts to our Support Team. Unfortunately, we are not authorized to make any decisions concerning them. Only our Support Team can investigate those accounts and take measures.

I understand that you want to see some actions, but unfortunately, I am unable to help in this case.

Plarium Community Manager. Please note that I will be unable to respond to your private messages, review your tickets, or check your account information. All technical issues should be directed to our Support Team at plrm.me/Support_Plarium

how about adding more content for BOTH servers, I'm on the second server the untamed lands, I'm SURROUNDED by inactives and I even have a deleted user as a fief............... I'm far away from the action and have very little worthwhile targets to fight... bot castles take a LONG time to go to where other players can hit bot castles all day long and don't have to go away for a few hours OR MORE at a time.... yes it takes money to host the servers most players realize this. but does that mean u should charge more and more and give nothing back? why not make both servers have the ability to relocate . maybe when a user deletes him/her self they get removed completely allowing for a new player to spawn in that spot or for a bot castle to appear so that its more worthwhile for those stuck in 1 spot till they eventually just say screw it and leave the game.... I pay about 20 to 40 bucks a month not a lot compared to the real pay to win players but hell cant we all get something better for our hard work and our buck? pay to win players and cheaters get top ranked spots in all the tournaments hell I had a guy even try to get me to do it with him and told me how to do it.... which I already submitted my report with picture proof (the guy is still playing the game so obv you did nothing) so why not give the hard working players something to look forward to? maybe write a program so that the game knows the average of the amount of cash and player level to put them into a more fair tourney compared to what they have paid and their level.... its simply code and if ur smart enough you can get the system to loop and think for itself to properly place players in the best tourny's so that nobody feels abused.

I play this game for about 4 to 8 hours a day.... way tooooo much imo and in anyone elses opinion and sometimes I wonder WTH I'm doing playing a game that cant give out some better benefits than some dragon thing that well just gives u a increase on resource production / troop speed ect ect ect...... could of been some kind of super unit that is able to get special points to level up for a powerful defence unit or raiding unit or whatever..(many different routs could of been taken that all would of been fine... not saying its current use is bad but its repetitive compared to the perks u can buy or get already

I guess at this point I'm randomly ranting but to put this to a end, do something about the inactives/deleted users, some teleporting would be Freakin nice, maybe some cooler defense styles like units u can actually upgrade as castle guards or special units u can send with ur army something fun that we all can use and customize.... thanks for your time if u took the time to read all of that

Please remember, it's not that the money being kept in a big safe. In the contrary! The money's meant to make those updates, and in order to keep those updates happening, Plarium needs their money.

Notice that the game has been growing a lot. A little more than 1 year ago, when I started playing, it wasn't as big as now, hence it didn't cost too much money. Even on a level up in that time, you'd get Sapphires! Unfortunately, that has been removed for probably the same reason as I wrote before. Plarium desires money, in order to keep the game running.

So think about it as giving a gift to them. Think that you're not just a Lord or Lady, but rather a hero for spending it on Stormfall, because it definitely helps Plarium!

Remember, though, that purchasing Sapphires is completely optional and thus if you prefer not to spend your money, then you'll have to obtain this in-game currency, which is worth real money, for free in a little more difficult way; earning them at Hamlets for example, which is completely logical in my eyes!

If you're uncertain about where to earn those Sapphires and how you can spend them wisely, check out this wiki article.

Please remember, it's not that the money being kept in a big safe. In the contrary! The money's meant to make those updates, and in order to keep those updates happening, Plarium needs their money.

in 2015, plarium generated a gross revenue of over $100 million. spreaded over 7 games, that's $14 million per game. or, $1.2 million per month, per game.

a total of 600 employees, that's 85 employees per game. let's assume they're decently paid, that'd be an average of $3000 per month per employee. for 85 employees, that'd be $260000 per month. multiply that by 2, to cover charges, taxes and such. it comes to a total of $520000 per month. out of $1.2 million, that still leaves $500000 per month.

even taking in consideration the CEO, CFO, and all the VPs salary, there's still plenty of money to update the game, as you say, without systematically looting players, with updates that are nothing but money grabbers.

remember that overall people are smart, not dumb.

remember that most of your customers are grownups, and not kids who don't know much, or at all, about business and company finances

and bare in mind that in a vast community of players, chances are some of them are in the internet field as well, some might even run software or gaming business